come pre-filled with problems. enough is enough. introducing the chase liquid reloadable card. with chase liquid, there's no waiting and no fee to activate you can load cash and checks at any chase depositfriendly atm

and there are no withdrawal fees at over 17,500 chase atms all for one flat fee of $4.95 per month. get rid of prepaid problems. get chase liquid.

a fast moving creek floods into its banks. and chp temporarily shutting traffic. good evening. >> in pacifica wind driven

waves pounded the pier and that along with strong winds prompted the pier closure. some people said they saw waves crashing on top of the pier. >> shoppers were focused on catching the limited shopping hours until the holiday. and officers put out flairs to stop people from driving through several feet of water. we have team coverage, mark tamayo is pinpointing the rainfall. deborah villalon is following the rainfall and jade hernandez is in an area where the power outages have happened. >> reporter: before this happened we were going to show

you that the water had receded right here. the water had come down. look at the mud. the mud goes up all this way right here. there are still tonight concerns that this storm has brought. >> we're moving everybody back. >> reporter: police ushered the crowd across the street as the creek crested. >> the trick is where the straight areas where it flows there's no problem with the flooding of it. it's the bends wherever the creek bends is a vulnerable spot. >> reporter: this isn't a new situation for long time menlo park homeowner ron garcia. >> in 1998 we weren't living here at the time but there was a flood in the basement and we lost our water heater, you can see the water mark. >> reporter: the couple had already put sandbags in front of the garage as they continue to monitor the flood level. we watched this man at university avenue check for

storm drain blockage with his bare hands. >> it didn't become the issue until i saw brown water coming down. >> which is where this guy parked his car. after we alerted him of the water he walked out barefoot to move it. the slow traffic was forced northbound. the palo alto's emergency operation center is active within the past hour, in fact, i just talked to the chief about 10 minutes ago, the menlo park chief said they're worried right now about the levy in east palo alto. water is up and over the levy so they called an engineer out. thanks to those concerns the area is open. you can check back here in about 30 minutes we're going to give you an update and give you an update after what's going on right there. here's another look at what the area looked like within the

last few minutes you can see a lot -f watt -- a lot of water pooling on the road. the highway patrol is running breaks in the area for drivers trying to keep the drivers at slow speeds. isn't the north bay the napa river a is at near flood stage. the water also opened up a sink hole. debora villalon continues our coverage in napa. >> reporter: you can see in napa the water is running high but well within its banks. good considering how the water battled the north bay. in the battle between cars and rain, the rain sometimes wins. further west where many roads

were shut down some folks folks forged their way against warnings. steel plates were sealed on to stoney point road. but this was just one temporary patch on one trouble spot. >> we have a little break in the storm, and we can watch up, get our heads above the water and get a break and fix some of the problems that we do have out there. >> reporter: rain pummeling the landscape faster than it can drain away has pounded this petaluma neighborhood before. >> when the sun comes out, the water will wash away. >> reporter: were you worried

at all? >> a little bit. just a little bit. >> reporter: in forestville, high winds brought a tree down on a to a house. an all day clean up but fortunately no one was injured. today carolers sang in the area. >> i think that we thought we would come out and sing carols to bring people's spirits up. because the rain sometimes brings people's spirits down. >> reporter: this is where the river is topping off more than a food above flood stage right now. but any water that spills over there mostly go into vineyards. we're live in napa, debora villalon. rain fell in santa cruz county throughout much of the day causing rock slides, accidents and even evacuations. the highway patrol said it got a call about this mud slide on highway 17 near sugar loaf road around 3:30 this afternoon. the slide is making southbound

travel very slow going. crews were able to open one lane to traffic but there's no word on when the other lane will reopen. at ben lomond a power tree brought down power lines causing the closure near el solly heights. work crews tried to clear the line. sheriff deputies evacuated people from 60 homes after the river spilled its banks. mark tamayo tells us that river reached about 2 feet above flood stage and is now receding. several storm drains clogged with debris sending mud over the roadway. crews shut the road and will work well into the night to try to clear all that debris. the rainfall rates have been backing off. in fact, the coverage has been backing off as well. we still have a flood warning

to talk about out toward napa river. that flood warning posted into the overnight hours but i have a feeling this could be lifted by the weather service coming up in a few hours. right now going down to just over 12 feet and that is below flood stage at 6 feet. napa 23.4 feet pretty close to flood stage but down to about 4:00 tomorrow morning. that flood warning officially still in place. as far as russian river looking okay. tomorrow morning at 11:00, 30.9 feet now gradually coming down into the afternoon hours. we have been watching palo alto a lot with that river, the creek going up quite a bit today. look at all that rainfall over 2-inches and the bulk of this just over probably about a three or four hour period. you can see the graph showing t trend with that creek there. topping flood stage earlier this evening -- the trend with the creek there, topping flood stage earlier this evening. right now we have clear to

partly cloudy skies across most of the region. there's a live sweep. thankfully we have a big break in the action in palo alto which is a few spots down there. maybe a few lingering showers, very light outside of morgan hill. up in the north bay partly cloudy skies out near santa rosa and the napa region. i am tracking another storm. this is what it looks like on highway 85 on squaw valley earlier today. three snow boarders triggered the avalanche. three skiers had minor injuries. everyone was accounted for about an hour later. it was very slow going for people going to the sierra. 80 at truckee was at a

standstill. you can see the line of cars there on the left hand side of your screen. drivers should carry food, water and blankets. as is often the case with today's wind and rain came delays at san francisco airports. sfo duty manager says departs flights are 45 to 90 minutes behind schedule and at least 57 flights have been cancelled. san jose airport is reporting just a handful of delays and a duty manager for oakland airport says thins there are running smoothly. we have a link on ktvu.com to track your flight just look under hot topics. the storm today caused power line problems across the bay area tonight. thousands of people are still without electricity. according to pg & e more than 2,000 people are out of power in the north bay. 3,300 in the south bay. 390 on the peninsula and 340 in the east bay. the rainy weather may have played a role in a number of accidents in the bay area.

a crash in emeryville slowed traffic to a crawl. the accident happened right before the mcarthur maze. four vehicles were involved in this crash. the road were wet at the time but the highway patrol has not said what exactly caused that pile up. another multi car accident this one in oakland sent one person to the hospital with minor injuries. it happened just before 5:00 a.m. on northbound 880 near the 11th street exit. that accident involved a total of nine vehicles. an officer is recovering after a driver slammed into his patrol car. the driver was responding to an accident in san leandro. the drivers that you see were speeding, slid on the road and were stuck in the mud. while he was waiting for help,

another driver rear ended his cruiser. >> no actually i don't think it's weather related i think it's speed related i think it's folks needing to pay attention. >> the officer involved was taken to the hospital to be checked out there were no other injuries reported. our storm coverage continues online just visit ktvu.com. there you can find our storm tracker 2 radar. just look under the storm watch tab on the home page. the holiday weekend is in full swing and the dui numbers are not good. the special teams being deployed to try to keep the streets safe. >> look, a gun is a tool. >> the head of the national rifle association defends his controversial proposal to put armed guards at schools. plus the surprising

rain pounded the pavement in oakland this afternoon and flowed swiftly to storm drains across the city. a drench that had many people running to their cars today. the storm has both forced fremont police to -- cancel a dui checkpoint instead those officers will be out on the roads looking for drunk drivers. >> reporter: as if the pouring rain and wet roads weren't

dangerous enough. >> you think a lot of people are drinking and driving out there? >> yes, yes. because it's a holiday. that's what they do. >> reporter: the california highway patrol reports drunk driving has already caused 15 fatal crashes on california roadways during this first part of the long holiday weekend. that's compared to just three deaths during the same period a year ago. >> when you mix alcohol and you mix the rain, you have a bad recipe there and it's usually a recipe for disaster. >> reporter: in the first two days of a maximum enforcement period in the bay area the chp says there have been three fatal crashes and 111 dui arrests. >> we've seen a lot of people being involved in collisions because they might have a little alcohol on board and be driving way above the speed limit. >> reporter: we saw that ourselves driving on 880 this afternoon. each chp officer in the bay -- office in the bay area are sending out special teams to

look for dui drivers. >> as many as fremont can get out i appreciate it. i'm sorry they can't be with their family but believe me, as a citizen of fremont i greatly appreciate it. >> reporter: despite this recent spike in arrests, the numbers have been steadily declining over the last several years. in fremont, eric rasmussen. retailers say holiday sales this weekend have been the best since black friday. stores are reporting modest gains as shoppers take advantage of all the last minute sales and longer hours. shopper track analysis has increased to 3.5 increase over last year. online sales continue to be hot and com scores reporting a 16% jump from 2011. a key senator expressed optimism that the government will be able to avoid the so called fiscal cliff. >> the president was about 200

billion higher on revenues. boehner 200 billion higher on spending cuts. out of a trillion dollar budget that doesn't seem unsurmountable so i would hope they would keep talking. >> congress is expected to be back in session by thursday. without a deal tax hikes for all americans and deep spending cuts will be triggered on january 1st. the head of the national rifle association today defended his group's refusal to consider any form of gun control. >> look a gun is a tool. the problem is the criminal. every police officer that walks the street knows if you want to control violent crime take violent criminals off the street. >> on friday the nra called for armed guards in schools as the best way to prevent shootings like the one in newtown connecticut. today warner a supporter of gun ownership called for mental

health care as a way to protect schools. religion leaders prayed for peace and called for action to prevent gun violence. church members held sunday service then a town hall forum to answer questions and spark discussion. actor and activist danny glover and jeremiah wright. glover says the connecticut shooting has brought a problem dealt with daily, gun violence. >> daily in light of what has happened in newtown connecticut, don't you give up on me. because now it is time for you to act. >> a group of san francisco faith leaders met with leaders to discuss what they can do to help. they hope to have similar meetings in the months to come. the key to solving bay area traffic problems could come from cell phone towers. a uc berkeley team says their study is the first time that

data from cell phone towers and gps devices have been used to track traffic and their research could be used to can cut down your drive time. stop and go traffic and break lights are part of life here. now researchers from uc berkeley have released a study that could ease traffic troubles. >> we demonstrated we can use smart phones and in particular cell tower data to pinpoint where congestion is coming from. which people are contributing most to congestion and where that could be delegated. and were able to track traffic and people's driving patterns. researchers said they identified certain trouble spots and learned that drivers originating from hayward and san jose seemed to contribute most to traffic congestion in the bay area. >> traffic is bad in the bay area. traditionally we're among the worse in the nation.

>> reporter: a spokesman for the metropolitan transportation commission says the study provides useful information, prior to the study, staff could only rely on readers to estimate traffic flow. >> it incorporates vehicle information on the arterials and the roads that feed into the freeways rather than just on the freeways themselves. >> the data could be used in the future to determine whether to place metering lights and fine tune the timing. >> we're going to go to the field and change feeder lights to demonstrate some real improvements. >> professor bian says they will be looking at los angeles next to do traffic studies there. a deadly day in syria as more than 100 people are killed while simply waiting in line. >> a british newspaper says cyclist lance armstrong owes the paper more than a million dollars. why they want the disgraced

cyclist to pay up. today's storm continues to move out of the bay area. coming up the one part of

ktvu news producer bell stock just sent us a picture of this tree that fell and smashed a parked car. it happened near p era lta boulevard. the tree is so heavy it will take a forklift to remove it. the tree barely missed falling on to a second car. president obama and first lady attended the funeral for the late senator, senator inouwe. he was buried in the cemetery known as the punch bowl.

he served in congress since 1959. he died last week from respiratory problems. reed called inouwe a leader. reports indicate the town in syria had not had ingredients for bread until a week until an aide group delivered provisions next week. hundreds of people had lined up to get food when the gunfire hit. investigators say it appears an electrical short may have started the fire. no one was injured but it is estimateed the fire cost millions of the dollars of damage. a new research on global warming indip in -- indicate that is the an -- the antartic

sheet is warming twice as fast. the study suggests the ice sheet is not just melting from the bottom it's previously thought it's melting from the top as well. it's lawsuit and now counter suit for lance armstrong and a british newspaper wants compensation from a liable suit. armstrong sued the uk sunday times a year ago when the paper reported that armstrong had taken performance drugs. armstrong had received a settlement. but since the u.s. doping agency has declared that armstrong ran a

an 80-foot oak tree fell on a house in los gatos. it pierced the roof and took out power. pg & e crewed worked to clear the branches away from power lines. seems like commercial crab fishermen in northern california will have to wait a little bit longer to set their traps again. for the third time the department of fish and game delayed the opening of dungenese crab season. they delayed the opening because tests show the crabs body weight is less than 25% meat. the season was set to start december 31st. fish and game says the opening

date cannot be delayed beyond january 15th. bay area air quality officials are asking residents not to burn wood in their fireplaces or wood stoving tonight and tomorrow. they have not declared spare the air days however there are concerns that as the weather clears the wood smoke could cause smoke pollution to build up throughout the bay area. volunteers were busy this morning in san francisco collecting food for those in need. >> two more hams. >> yay. >> reporter: this woman braved the rain to help collect hams for the st. anthony foundation for the annual christmas dinner. st.anthony's is trying to collect 4,000 hams for the people expected on christmas day. the economic situation has made the need everyone greater this year. >> it's enormous. i think in general people are concerned about the fiscal cliff. some people who donate to st. anthony's are concerned about what happens. others are concerns there's going to be service cuts.

volunteers from a fremont siek several were also at hand to pass out blankets for those who came indoors. tonight a pointient poem written by a homeless man. >> tell you about a real poem. that is part of my life, writing. that poem just came to me. and i wrote it the way it came to me. >> a lot of parts touch my heart, touch home. but i have had friends that have died in the streets being homeless. >> every day you see things that shouldn't be. because people are lacking love. >> that is why it's so important to have people on the street who care about you.

when you're out here at night and you're alone it's a frightening feeling. >> i met him in line waiting for a bowl of soup and a piece of bread and soon, we were inseparable. where he walked i walked. >> and he took his blanket and came over to me and wrapped it around my shoulders. i didn't know him. he didn't know me. but we were homeless together. and that made us brothers. >> you either run away from your situation or fight your way out of it. and right now i'm trying to fight my way out and feel like a human being again. >> when i was on the street i didn't want you to throw money at me. i wanted you to sit down with

me and have a cup of coffee and treat me like a human being. >> so let us not be demonized, stereo typed, let us not be cast aside, marginnized. let us rise above the fear. let us rise beyond the sooty streets. >> i used to look at people who were homeless in the same way people look at me and i understand now what it's about. anybody can be in this position. >> whatever your name is, i am you. whatever language you were born into, i am you. i am in every postso that hungers for justice and the right to love. >> i think christmas is an every day thing. you celebrate christmas every

day. >> peace on earth and all the people that are out there homeless be able to find a place to be warm and have a good meal and be safe. >> christmas is really about that everybody feels some love that's out here on the street. some love from somebody. >> the one thing that i gained from being homeless was to love and the young self-lessness of the young people who share had the experience with me. >> merry christmas to all the homeless people around the world and never give up on life. because life is what comes to you and you have to take it how it comes. >> what does christmas mean to me? another day. just another day. >> again that was ktvu photo journalist handre. you can see this and other interviews on christmas day, it starts december 25th at noon and 5:30 p.m.

all right, some scary moments tonight in the south bay. what happened to the driver of this tow truck that flipped over after colliding with a car. >> meteorologist mark tamayo has

there's something you don't see every day, a tow truck driver flipped his rig over after crashing into a car on wet streets tonight. the accident happened at third and oak street in s era toga. firefighters rescued the tow truck driver who was taken to the hospital with serious injures. the car driver walked away apparently okay. there has been so much rain throughout the area. meteorologist mark tamayo has been studying it. we've seen you back there and there's really been a lot of

rain in key areas. >> lots of rain in the mountains. today's storm the third one definitely the strongest. the radar loop over the past few hours will take you back in time to about 7:00 this morning. this was a pattern putting this into motion. you see all those yellows and reds moving into the area. santa rosa over 2-inches of rain. fairfield over an inch. san francisco an inch. san jose 1.20 and look at boulder creek over 5-inches of rain over the past 24 hours. thankfully the storm is moving off to the east and still producing some significant snow out toward the sierra. here's the latest with the sierra snow. we'll come in tighter, these are all weather observation reports from some of the spotters out there as we do come in tighter we'll take a look at a couple of them here. you will notice this out toward incline village. heavy snow. this is at 6:18 this morning over 39-inches of snow. over 3 feet of snow with this, that was early this morning so they have likely picked up, they have definitely picked up

more over the past 12 hours. right now on live storm tracker 2 the rain clouds are moving out. we do have rain clouds across the region. we will hold on to that weather pattern. we do have a break. maybe a slight chance of a sprinkle early tomorrow morning. this is a cold front responsible for all the active tiff for today. so tomorrow the dry weather forecast partly cloudy skies, this rain could be heading down toward southern california in a much weakened state. much weaker state. and then into christmas day our next system approaches. this will definitely increase the cloud cover and forecast models are increasing rainfall probabilities over the bay area on christmas day. especially as we do head into the afternoon and into the evening hours. here is our forecast model showing you the cloud cover right now. we'll put this into motion. tomorrow just partly cloudy skies to start out your monday morning. most areas in the low to mid- 40s then into the afternoon hours a few extra high clouds. this is for tuesday morning.

but monday partly cloudy skies. tuesday starting out dry but look what happens that rain approaches as we head into the afternoon hours. so for christmas day increasing rain chances especially after 1:00 or 2:00. but this system much weaker than the one that moved through today but still producing light to moderate rainfall. temperatures for tomorrow mainly in the 50s. so after the cool start we're talking about cool temperatures for the afternoon as well. low to mid-50s for santa rosa and antioch. san francisco maxes out at 51 degrees. there's that rain cloud on christmas day especially for the afternoon hours. slight chance of a shower into wednesday. partly cloudy on thursday. we're going to thicken up the cloud cover throughout the day on friday. there's a slight chance of a shower on saturday with partically cloudy skies on sunday. just an amazing day. we started out the day with extreme rainfall rates of gusty winds. you could be walking underneath the stars with the storm heading out of town.

>> dramatic change. thank you mark. coming up the radars quarterback palm

good evening everyone thanks for joining our sunday night edition of sports wrap. there were so many questions before tonight's game between the 49ers and seahawks in seattle but who thought the biggest question would be will the seahawks score 50 points for the third straight game. did the 49ers miss justin smith tonight in seattle you bet cha. but it rained the entire game and it was loud from start to finish just the way the

seahawks love it. it's lynch 25-yard touchdown makes it 7-0. lynch was in his self-described beach mode. he also catches this touch down pass by wilson. it's 14-0. were the niners worn out from last week's game. yes. and the seahawks impose their pain. replay shows that he was just playing old fashion slobber knocker football. field goal kicker akers frustrating season, it keeps him on it. richard sherman scoops it and scores. this guy played for harbaugh and this is the way simpson treats him. he's seen heading away that way again. and someone gives pete carol an

umbrella. leroy hill twists and tackles manningham, manningham leaves with a knee injury. and doug baldwin, baldwin performs a great ballet style move to beat carlos rogers that's a 49 touchdown 35-6. kaepernik threw for as many yards but there goes the stanford graduate again. seattle singing in the rain and harbaugh and the niners limp home. they do add a late touchdown. seattle clenches at least a wild card spot. 49ers were already in the play offs but joe fonzi was in seattle and they say those seahawks were for real. >> the seattle offense that the 49ers saw tonight was a far cry in the one they saw in the win

against the seahawks back in october. a major reason is roger wilson. >> he made a lot of good decisions out there. made a lot of plays with his feet. there was one play that it seemed he was running around for 15 seconds back there. that is the kind of player he is. >> he did a good job today making extended plays with his feet. >> be behind like that it's uncharacterrist of this team but we have been behind before not to that extent. you have to dig down, can't give up. just have to try to find a way to make plays to try to get yourself back in and try to get the momentum back and we didn't do that. >> the 49ers can still win the nfc with a win against the cardinals and assure themselves of at least one home game. in seattle i'm joe fonzi for sports wrap. >> the raiders use three different quarterbacks today in charlotte. not one of them produced a

touchdown. at least today the raiders showed a hint of imagination. second play of the game quarterback carson palmer split right. pryor takes the right. palmer passes it back to pryor. pryor goes back to the bench and the 49ers end up punting. carson palmer became just the second raider ever to throw for 4,000 yards. then carolina makes a palmer sandwich. panthers greg hardy flagged for roughing. that was on his last play of the day. here comes palmer the master of the pass. 90 seconds before halftime, he throws for bernard. the late al davis wondering what ever happened to the deep

ball? so that gives carolina enough time to score. carolina in for a touchdown. newton ran for 60 yards on his own. raiders forced two turnovers after an intersection. they thought they scored a touchdown but no. the raiders have not scored a touchdown in eight straight quarters. they will finish this forgettable season sunday in san diego. carson palmer status still uncertain for that one. new york giants can testify it is not easy to repeat a super bowl championship. the raiders put -- the ravens put up 533 yards of offense against the giants. rice scores a 35-yarder. they cling to very slim play off hopes.

rg3 led the skins to their sixth straight win. and that proves to be the game winning touchdown. they clench the nfc east with a victory against dallas next sunday. and the cowboys made a nice come back at least to go into ot. that's romo to miles austin it's tied 31-31. 15 seconds left in regulation. it's drew breas to marcus colston. new orleans keep it is ball and allows derek hartley to put in the winning touchdown. the pack is back, green bay scores 55 points against the visiting titans today. ran for one, threw for three. packers won 55-7 in 29 years

they are 11-4 over all. here's the four nfc teams that are already in. if the packers win sunday they also get a first round bye. 49ers and seahawks also play off bound. sunday's winner of the washington and dallas game wins the nfc spot and a play off position. minnesota can earn the finalberth with a win over green bay. and when we come back we will focus on the well, well, well. growing up, we didn't have u-verse.

we couldn't record four shows at the same time. in my day, you were lucky if you could record two shows. and if mom was recording her dumb show and dad was recording his dumb show then, by george, that's all we watched. and we liked it! today's kids got it so good. [ male announcer ] get u-verse tv with a total home dvr included free for life. only $29 a month for six months. rethink possible.

remember when everybody

wondered if pe yton manning would return after his neck surgery. well today manning is doing surgery on everyone else. denver wins their tenth straight game. indianapolis loves manning's replacement there too that's andrew luck and the colts win their tenth game of the year today. they clench a play off spot as luck throws the touchdown pass to reggie wayne. andrew sets a new rookie record. and there will be no postseason for ben roethlisberger and the steelers while today in pittsburgh, cincinnati clenches their second straight play off spot. ben roethlisberger trys to make a play and gets intercepted in regulation. bengals score well they complete one pass then get kicker josh brown close enough

to kick the 43-yard game winning feel goal. bengals beat pittsburgh for the first time since 2009. mcilroy's start in the nfl was not easy. phillip rivers throws to antonio gates. gates scored a touchdown for a chargers record 82nd time. san diego wins 27-17. they'll play raiders next week. new england wins their 11th game of the year. chicago's defense scores twice. bears win in arizona and the vickings upset the texans in houston 23-6. so these four teams have now clenched an afc division title and a play off spot that would be houston, new england, baltimore. texans could clench a spot. and the two wild card teams are

also set. the colts and those cincinnati bengals. today's game in oakland i guess oakland in charlotte featured six unnecessary roughness penalties. tommy kelly admitted after the game that his quarterback carson palmer left the game with an injury so they wanted to get back at newton. cam tries to kick kelly. nobody sited newton. cam bumps into the referee that is going to call another call on newman. >> i felt that i threw the ball and after i threw it he still finished and drove me into the ground. out of frustration with me seeing the umpire there and i just questioned his decision not to throw the flag. but you know that's just the name of the game. sometimes you get them, sometimes you don't. >> he'll probably gate phone call from roger gudel.

and gayles finally played their game tonight. and in honolulu, today against southern miss, the rebels make a charge that's murphy holloway with the steal. and ohio native nick swisher is going home. former oaklander tweeted that he's going to play for cleveland for two years. swisher spent the last four years with the yankees. the ever smiling switch hitter batted 10 in. raiders losing, and seattle getting swamped. it was not pretty from start to finish there. >> no they got spanked pretty good. >> they got some reality and they got hurt too. they got beat up. >> they have to lick their

wounds and get back into it. >> sure. >> thank you. we have an update that we want to tell you about in that flooding on east palo alto. tonight the american red cross is telling us they are looking for a new evacuation center for those who are in need of shelter. >> they had planned on opening up the east palo alto ymca on belt street but the red cross says that building doesn't have power so now they're looking for an alternate location. 10 homes in east palo alto have been evacuated because of rising waters on the peninsula. that's our report for tonight. we'll see you the next time news breaks. >> the ktvu news at 4:30 a.m. will have the related problems around the peninsula. thank you for joining us, good night.